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Tuesday, 7 August 2012

My first blog !

At last I have got round to writing the first post in my new blog ! I have had plans to do it for a long time, but have been so busy.

Please bear with me as I get used to writing - it seems a bit weird at the moment as there are no followers yet, so it seems like I am talking to myself :-)

Any way this is my plan -

I am going to travel the length and breadth of Britain to photograph all the British native ponies in their native environment. I don't want photos of them in owner's fields, paddocks, etc - they have to be where they are supposed to be - so I will have to travel as far North as the Shetland Isles to see the Shetland ponies, and as far South as Dartmoor and Exmoor in Devon to photograph the ponies there.

I am also going to research the history and background of each of the pony breeds, as well as their different characters. Many of the British native breeds are declining, in the wild and domestically - some are even on the rare and endangered breeds list, which is very sad. I want to make people aware of this and show why we should look after the ponies and not let them disappear - they are a part of our heritage.

Here is a chart showing which horse and ponies are on the equine watch list provided by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust

Sadly there are some British ponies that have already become extinct: the Cushendale, Goonhilly, Tiree and Longmynd pony. I hope this never happens to any of the others. Sadly, I have never even heard of these.

I have already been to the Outer Hebrides and the Island Eriskay to photograph the wonderful, friendly and inquisitive Eriskay ponies

Eriskay pony

And the Carneddau area of Snowdonia National park in North Wales to photograph the beautiful, wild, and rugged Welsh Mountain ponies

Welsh Carneddau pony

But I still have the rest to see and I can't wait to meet them all.

If you are interested in native ponies then please follow my blog to see more photos and interesting facts about the native ponies of Britain - I will be starting with the Eriskay ponies that I visited in March and got some lovely photos of.